Travelogue, last leg After Rome, we flew to NYC, caught a cab to LaGuardia, and visited Mom & Dad in North Carolina. Then, after a too-brief visit, back to NYC. We stayed in a Holiday Inn in Long Island City, with a very nice view across the East River. As much as we wanted to see everything, we couldn't, with only two-and-a-half days of tourism available to us. We missed a few things due to a lack of prior research and no local expertise beyond my memory of the subway system. Luckily that was enough, mostly, for a few highlights. I don't often miss living in NYC and doubt I would be successful transitioning back, as the up-front costs would be extraordinary, but it was nice to see the old place, including many of the new things I've read about. So much new; it was good to see. So much old; it was good it's still there. (The subways, however, need a serious upgrade. Rome and Berlin were so much quieter and cleaner. Although their maps aren't as good as the MTA's.)

Travelogue, part 4 Rome, the Eternal City. Absolute chaos. More tourists than I've seen outside of the Louvre, in Paris. Our hotel wasn't great, but it was less than 2 kilometers from the Colosseum, another 2 to the Vatican, so we had no trouble getting around and seeing as much as we could in two days, which was a lot. Romulus' & Remus' mom doesn't look too impressed, but she's everywhere. The Swiss Guard really do dress like 1970's McDonald's employees, but with spears and metal hairnets. You cannot escape the crowds at any time of day.

Travelogue, part 3 So, after Berlin, we flew to Pisa, where we didn't stop, but caught a train up to La Spezia and then on to Riomaggiore, the southernmost town in the Cinque Terre region. This was a true highlight of the trip. The landscape was incredible, mountains straight up out of the sea, terraced for olives and grapes, but much of it still wild, too, with each of the five towns along the coast being perched and clustered right on the edges. Italians seem to like their cats, too.

Travelogue, part 1 So, first up, Berlin: Special notice in Berlin: Holocaust Memorial, designed by the same guy who did the WTC in NYC. Very evocative. Also, the Jewish Museum was very extensive and effective. And then there's the Walk/Don't Walk signs. West Berlin has the usual format. East Berlin, however, had it's own, which has been preserved. It helps orient you to where you are in the city, too, I think. It's all very different from when I was there in 1988, not to mention October being a bit cooler than August, and having locals to guide us through. Checkpoint Charlie has an enormous McDonald's on what was the eastern side, and many of the old East Berlin sites now host staged photo ops, like guys dressed as soldiers or in bear suits or Mickey Mouse, even. Segways everywhere, for the tourists, and otherwise the city is bicycle-mad. They keep a sense of their history well, without overindulging guilt. The role of Germany in the modern world is acknowledged with appropriate humility, as well as the divisions of the Cold War. I'm glad they're keeping what's left of the Wall. Some of that deserves to be pointed up, too, including the East Berlin Gallery section, which had a section of the Wall painted with pictures of other, current walls around the world. We still do these things to each other, and are insufficiently shamed by it.